


l«l 




HOT SPRINGS 

of ARKANSAS 



DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR 

Franklin K. Lane, Secretary 



W.S.NATIONAL PARK SERVICE 



'^:^\ 




J... of D. 
FEB..*'3 1917 







Main Entran'ce to the Hot Springs Reservation 

SPRINGS OF HEALING 



I IROM the slopes of a picturesque wooded hill among the wild and 

F romantic Ozark Mountains of Arkansas flow springs of hot water 
whose powers to alleviate certain bodily ills have been recognized 
l| for many generations. Tradition has it that their curative proper- 
ties were known to the Indians long before the Spanish invasion. It is prob- 
able that they were known to De Soto, who died in 1542, less than a hundred 
miles away. It is tradition that Indian warring tribes suspended all hostilities 
at these healing springs whose neighborhood they called " The Land of Peace." 

Government analyses of the waters disclose more than twenty chemical 
constituents, but it is not these nor their combination to which is principallv 
attributed the water's unquestioned helpfulness in many disordered conditions, 
but to their remarkable radioactivity. 

The reservation is the oldest national park, having received that status 
in 1832, fort}^ years before the wonders of the Yellowstone first inspired 
Congress with the idea that scenery was a national asset deserving of pres- 
ervation for the use and enjo^Tnent of succeeding generations. No aesthetic 
consideration was involved in this early act of national conservation. Congress 
was inspired only by the undoubted, but at that time inexplicable, natural 
power of these waters to alleviate certain bodily ills. The motive was to retain 
these unique waters in public possession to be available to all persons for all 
time at a minimum, even a nominal, cost. 




TnK Promenade at Hot Springs 




Malrice SrRiNf;, Hot Strings Reservation 
This is centrally located ami huiulreils of persons visit it daily 




One of the Best Golf Courses in the South 

DR. NATURE'S WATER CURE 




OT SPRINGS has much besides its curative waters to attract and 
hold the visitor. It has one of the best and most interesting golf 
courses in the South. The surrounding country is romantically 
beautiful. Many miles of woodland trail lead the walker and the 
horseback rider through pine-scented glades and glens and o\'er mountain tops 
of unusual charm. There is tennis for the young folks, ostrich and alligator 
farms for the curious, and the gayeties of life in big hotels for all. 

Hot Springs is not merely a winter resort, as used to be supposed. Climate 
and conditions are delightful the year around, as increasing throngs are rapidly 
discovering. It is above all a place for rest and recuperation. More and more 
Avinter visitors are remaining through April and May, when the spring is young 
and glorious and the baths the most efficacious. But those who remain after 
March should bring summer clothing, as the temperature then ranges from 65 
to 85 degrees. 

The reservation includes three mountains and a lake, and the tract incloses 
all the forty-six hot springs. Eleven bathhouses, some of them as complete 
and lu.Kurious in equipment as any in the world, are in the reservation, and a 
dozen more in the city, all imder Government regulation. There are also cold 
springs possessing curative properties. 

There are many hotels, the largest having accommodations for a thousand 
guests, and several hundred boarding houses, many at very modest prices. 
Cottages and apartments may be rented for light housekeeping. 

Hot Springs Mountain, from whose sides flow the cleansing waters, is about 
fifty miles west by south from Little Rock. 




Beautiful Forests of Pine Clothe the Ozark Mountains 




The Golf Club at Hot Si'rings 



ITS PICTURESQUE HISTORY 



iIHE recorded history of Hot Springs goes back to 1804, when four log 

T houses accommodated the people who traveled many weary miles 
of trail to bathe in the waters. The lands adjacent to the springs 
l| were claimed by conflicting interests which, as the waters grew in 
fame, waged legal battles for many years for possession. Then followed a 
generation of lax law when Hot Springs became the winter gathering place 
of gamblers. This was the most picturesque period in its history. 

In recent years, with the awakening of the public conscience, the uplifting 
of the public taste, and the enactment of laws prohibiting gambling, Hot 
Springs has made rapid strides toward its manifest and enviable destiny. 




There Are Many Hotels; This One, the Arlington, Is One of the Largest 



HOT SPRINGS BELONG TO YOU 




Hot Sprint^s is a Government reservation under the control of the; 
Department of the Interior. 

It is easily reached by the Iron Mountain and Rock Island lines, with con- 
nections from all principal cities north, east, south and west. 

For schedules and excursion fares write to the passenger department of 
the following railroads: 

St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern Railway, Railway Exchange Build- 
ing, vSt. Louis, Missouri; 

Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railway, La Salle Street Station, Chicago, 
Illinois. 

Information may also be obtained from tourist agencies ever)^ where. 



WASHINGTON : OOVERNMENT PRINTINO OFFICE : ISI7 



